15 minute presentation on python?

[Sheila King]

On Mon, 25 Feb 2002 17:51:36 -0500, "Joshua Muskovitz" <joshm at taconic.net>
wrote in comp.lang.python in article <3c7abd92_1 at corp.newsgroups.com>:

> 
> They are the tech faculty for the local tech school.  It is meant to
> demonstrate my ability to teach (something). 

If this is the case, they are more interested in HOW you present, than in
WHAT you present. Still, I can appreciate you wanting to show off the fun
of Python.

Don't try too much to "wow" them with the topic. Pick something that is
fairly clear to explain. Keep in mind, that you will have to explain the
data structures, etc... before you can even begin to talk about the actual
application you want to show. (At least, that is how I would start. First
with an overview of some Python data types/structures that will occur in
the example you are about to present, and then show the actual example.)

15 minutes is not very much time, either. Keep to something fairly simple.

> Maybe writing something like wc, then perhaps an indexer (using a dict to
> construct a list of references, then producing pretty output).  Hmm...  I
> think I answered my own question.

I'm not catching this reference here. But even something as simple as
grabbing the text from an HTML document, getting only the links, and
listing them, would be fine.

Or how about, testing whether the links are dead or resolve? Generating a
list of dead links in  the web page? This would be fairly simple. Start by
just showing how you would grab all the links and put them into some Python
data structure. Maybe a dictionary, where the URL is the key and it could
have value 'untested', 'dead', and 'valid', or something like that.

Then, after you've constructed the list, go through and test each one to
see whether you get an error response or a good response, updating your
dictionary as you go. Then output the results.

Well, not a "wow", but anyhow, it's an idea. I'm sure we could all come up
with quite a few examples.

Personally, I'm into email examples. Generate and send a live email. (Will
you have a live connection?)

-- 
Sheila King
http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/

"When introducing your puppy to an adult cat,
restrain the puppy, not the cat." -- Gwen Bailey,
_The Perfect Puppy: How to Raise a Well-behaved Dog_